Today’s Zaman
newspaper reported that two months ago, Turkish intelligence had detected two
Israeli Heron UAVs operating in the southern Turkish provinces of Hatay and
Adana. The UAVs were reportedly collecting data on Turkish military units, then
using the intelligence to set up PKK bases in northern Syria for confronting
Turkish troops.

The report also claims that Kenan Yıldızbakan – a PKK
member who led an assault against a Turkish naval base in Hatay in 2010 – has
visited Israel on numerous occasions, further raising suspicions of his
organization’s ties to the Jewish state.

Today’s Zaman is the English
version of the Turkish paper Zaman, a mass-circulation daily linked to the
Gulenist movement – an influential Islamist organization led by a Turkish
religious scholar living in exile in the United States. Its coverage is broadly
favorable to the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP.